(Closed) Who to Tip on the Big Day – Advice from My Planner

I got some guidance from my planner today regarding which vendors to tip, and which ones not to tip. I found the information to be very helpful (and it’s going to save me money), so I thought I’d pass it along. 🙂

My planner said that business owners should not be tipped. For example, say your photographer owns his business and has one assistant helping out at your wedding. You would not tip the photographer, but you would tip the assistant. The reason being that the business owner will be receiving the profit when you pay them for the service provided; assistants and hired hands will not.

I thought it seemed weird to tip the photo assistant and not the photographer, but my planner assured me this is the normal practice and that my photographer would not be offended.

Here’s a list of who we’re tipping and who we’re not.

TIPPING:– Photographer’s Assistant, $50 – $100 (if photographer worked for a company and did not own the business, we’d tip the photographer, too) – Bartenders, $25 – $50 per bartender (unless they have a tip jar out, then we will not tip, because guests will be tipping for your – we’re asking not to have a tip jar out, so we will cover the tip)– Hair & Makeup $40 (even though my artist does own her business, tipping was recommended and I think that makes sense)

NOT TIPPING:– Wedding Planner (she said the only time she’s been tipped was at the end of an Indian wedding with 500+ guests and cost $879k)– DJ (he owns the company, but if one of his other DJs were doing it, we would tip)– Officiant (she owns her business)– Photo Booth (the attendant will be the owner)– Caterer (they build in an automatic 20% gratuity)– Shuttle Drivers (gratuity is built into the price, as stated in our contract)

Now here’s my disclosure, tip amounts may vary depending on region and who you tip may also vary by region. If you are using a planner, definitely ask them as they’ll know what the norms are for your area.

I think the whole “if they own the business” thing is a good rule to fall back on, but I think we’re still going to tip our photographers. Sure, they own their business (husband and wife team), but we really freaking like them. Anyone who goes above and beyond (just like at a resturant) will get a tip from us. Maybe it won’t be a monitary gift – maybe a nice gift sent after the wedding day with a thank you (an engraved business card holder, for example), or maybe it will, but just because our DJ, DOC, photographer, videographer, florist, hairstylist, and MUA all own their own businesses doesn’t mean they won’t necessarily not get a tip.